Former FHFA AI Chief To Lead Better’s AI-Driven Origination, Homeownership Platform

Digital mortgage and homeownership company, Better.com, has hired former Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) fintech and AI chief Leah Price to lead its Tinman AI Platform as Better moves to offer the technology to lenders nationwide. Price’s new title is Vice President, Tinman AI Platform. 

At FHFA, Price led the Office of Fintech and the Office of the Chief AI Officer. She was “a driving force” behind establishing the agency “as a forward-thinking leader on GenAI in the mortgage industry and among regulatory peers,” according to Better. 

The company’s mantra: “Making homeownership simpler, faster — and most importantly, more accessible.” 

Price’s “expertise at the intersection of regulation and innovation will be instrumental as we advance our mission to deliver smarter, faster, AI-powered solutions to the market,” Better noted in a post on LinkedIn.  

Better’s Tinman is an AI-driven, automated decision engine and software platform designed to connect and optimize mortgage origination and homeownership services to deliver an end-to-end solution for customers, the company explained. 

The software platform and engine include a point-of-sale system, CRM system, pricing engine, document engine, loan origination software, and underwriting calculation engine.

Vishal Garg, CEO and founder of Better.com, contended that Tinman has automated time and labor-intensive portions of the mortgage process and reduced Better Mortgage’s costs to originate by more than 40% compared to the industry average. 

“Our loan officers have compressed a staggering 80% of their back-office costs using our platform,” Garg emphasized. He said Price is “a recognized leader” who will help “bring our disruptive technology to market, allowing other lenders to realize those same benefits for themselves.”

According to Better, the Tinman platform empowers consumers and will give local mortgage brokers and banks the tech to serve their customers at scale. “A large addressable market exists within the mortgage ecosystem for the holistic one-stop software solution powered by Tinman,” according to Better, which noted that more than five million mortgages were built on ICE Mortgage Technology’s Encompass platform last year.

“Lenders of all sizes can now harness the speed, efficiency, and automated risk management capabilities that previously were exclusive to the industry's largest, most tech-savvy lenders,” Price contended regarding Better’s technology. “We’ve reached a pivotal moment in the history of technology, and Tinman is leading the charge in the mortgage industry.”

Prior to serving at FHFA, Price was Vice President of Lending Ecosystem for Figure Technologies, which specializes in using technology to streamline financial services, particularly in lending and capital markets. She also led a technology distribution team and development of the Day 1 Certainty program at Fannie Mae.

Day 1 Certainty aims to give lenders confidence in the integrity of a loan file and reduce the risk of loan repurchase. 

Price additionally served at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s MISMO (Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization) as a senior advisor and co-chair of the Emerging Technology Community of Practice.